Killer Cities: Past and Present
American Economic Review · 2015 · Volume 105 · Issue 5
Abstract
The industrial cities of the 19th century were incredibly unhealthy places to live. How much progress has been made in reducing these negative health effects over the past 150 years? To help answer this question, we compare mortality patterns in 19th century England to those in Chinese urban areas in 2000. We document that substantial improvements have been made in improving health in cities over this period. Unlike historical English cities, large cities in China have lower mortality than less populated areas. However, we also provide evidence that in China a substantial relationship between industrial pollution and mortality remains.
Keywords
Health Behavior, Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative, Regional and Urban History: General, Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics, Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics, Education and Training: Welfare, and Poverty, Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Noise, Hazardous Waste, Solid Waste, Recycling, Urban, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration, Regional Labor Markets, Population, Neighborhood Characteristics
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